Insights From the Inside: Understanding the Body and Its Signals Better With Data 

We can unlock several possibilities with continuous real-time data in healthcare. Intelligent tracking, bio-wearables, and advancements in diagnostics and healthcare delivery facilitate a dialogue with our bodies, enabling us to understand the signs, changes, and behaviors before they manifest into more serious health issues.

Here’s how advancements in bio-wearables and healthcare are revolutionizing this conversation with our bodies:

1. Diagnosis beyond the clinic 
   Connected and personalized healthcare technology has the potential to offer personalized insights and predictions on-demand and anywhere, not just in clinics or hospitals. Continuous biometrics would then be able to provide personalized information beyond the vital signs and basic behaviors, which can direct people to the expertise of medical professionals right before they need it.
   
   These insights would enable individuals to stay on top of their health status and keep their healthcare providers in the loop, even remotely.
   
   Access to real-time healthcare data also empowers healthcare providers to focus their time efficiently on people who need the support. At the same time, they can scale their services to offer this support anywhere in the world.  
2. Preventing and limiting severe, life-threatening diseases
   Continuous data monitoring can signal potential warning signs of a serious illness or avoidable issues much before these become life-threatening or life-limiting. Whether your glucose levels have spiked, or your blood pressure has dipped dangerously low – smart health devices can alert you when these numbers indicate a risk. Timing is critical with many of these conditions. The ability to reach out for emergency care or support can be a make-or-break factor in the outcomes. 
3. Instilling a proactive healthcare mindset
   The way most people deal with physical and mental health issues is largely reactive. You visit a doctor only once you are in pain or feel sick. You assume all is well if you aren’t particularly experiencing any symptoms or pain. But healthcare tech, with its continuous monitoring, fosters a proactive mindset. When you see your lifestyle choices impact your health metrics in real-time, you work to improve them. The urgency to lead a better routine is realized much before you reach a stage of critical medical intervention. 
4. Peace of mind
   One’s state-of-mind is crucial to well-being, recovery, and managing health conditions. Ambiguity around one’s health can lead to a cycle of stress for both the concerned person and their care givers. Health data and bio-wearables empower the affected, their loved ones, and care givers to monitor health markers to  ensure peace of mind.  Research by PwC suggests the demand for devices and solutions that can help people look after their family members, such as children or aging parents. Leveraging wearable technology helps caregivers watch at-risk seniors in their family, whether they are traveling or at work. 
5. Rehabilitation 
   Hospitals and doctors can also leverage wearable technology to provide better care to individuals for rehabilitation and post-operative care. For instance, devices that can be tracked from anywhere to check cardiac conditions post-surgery. This reduces repeat hospital admissions, offers everyone a better quality of life, and feeds into long-term development of treatments to improve outcomes. 
   
   Healthcare companies are also using virtual reality to take people with specific ailments through a set of motions and tasks, analyzing session data and creating insights for clinicians. Take, for instance, a stroke patient whose physician can monitor recovery closely and quantify the interactions. The combination of VR environments and analysis takes the value of bio-wearables to the next level. 
   
   People also benefit from reduced medical costs and better recovery in the comfort of their homes with automated health monitoring. 

Decentralizing healthcare to empowering more people
Innovations in wearable and implantable healthcare tech is making it possible to decentralize healthcare while empowering people with more trust, freedom, and great flexibility. The future led by a more innovative ecosystem of healthcare providers, experts, and bio-wearables promises more personalized and precise healthcare services with advances in technologies like Artificial Intelligence and IoT  

Continuous data monitoring and collection will help shape up the healthcare ecosystem of the future. A future wherein both the patient and doctor succeed with timely, relevant, and contextual information.

Disclaimer: This publication/article/editorial is meant for awareness/educational purposes and does not constitute or imply an endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of any products. Please consult your doctor/healthcare practitioner before starting any diet, medication or exercise.